More global solidarity for the NHS

We’ve just posted seven more messages of support for the Save our NHS rally on 7 March, from a range of national centres and public sector unions.

The main union centre in France, the CGT, have sent a message from their General Secretary Bernard Thibault. In Bulgaria, the leaders of both national union confederations, CITUB and PODKREPA, have sent support too.

And Francis Atwoli, leader of the Kenyan TUC, COTU, has also lent support, describing the Health and Social Care Bill as “gambling with the lives of UK citizens.”

Bernard Thibault issued this rallying cry:

“We are facing the same blights throughout Europe: the public authorities’ blatant determination to transfer into private hands whole sectors of the public services which we fought for after the Second World War. Governments are trying once again to make workers pay for a crisis for which they hold no responsibilities. We must say ‘stop’. Enough is enough.”

CITUB called the NHS “a great national institution” with impressive founding principles reflecting “the British core beliefs of freedom, fairness and responsibility.”

“Competing on cost alone makes sense only in commodity business, where all sellers are more or less the same. Clearly that is not true in health care, where primary responsibility for efficiently reducing costs and health inequalities must be allocated to the state.”

We’ve also had support from the Centrale des syndicats du Québec, the All-Russia Life-Support Workers’ Union and the American Federation of Teachers, who said:

“good healthcare should be available to all, regardless of station in life or ability to pay. This principle has guided the NHS well since its founding, and has made it a touchstone around the world for public confidence and public access in a healthcare system.”

I’ve been the Head of the TUC’s European Union and International Relations Department since 2003 and have worked at the TUC since 1984. I’ve been a member of the Health and Safety Commission, the Civil Justice Council, the Social Security Advis…

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